A White Paper on Kangla and Sanamahi faith
- Part 3 -

H Dwijasekhar Sharma *

The pre-Hinduized form of marriage had all the processes and rituals quite similar to the Hindu form.

In the arranged marriage form the parents of the bride would verify the parentage, yek etc of the groom and vice versa, whereafter the first coded phase is heishing-kharai puba on an appointed day or offer of fruits etc by the groom's parents/to bride's parents/elders for worship of bride's deities (including Sanamahi) and ancestors.

However the disgruntled valley population continued to murmur against Vaishnavism. And these whispers began to gain momentum in cohort.

By the 1940's Manipur saw a manifest attempt to go back to the past and assert the Manipuri identity. Then it was more to do with the decline of monarchical edicts on the social, religious and cultural affairs.

Already, social dramas, Shumang Leelas and other creative literatures opened up a vista for a revivalist movement in Manipur. Strangely enough, the seed of a revivalist movement was sown in Cachar away from Manipur, rather than in Manipur valley itself.

In 1930, a Meitei, Naoriya Phulo started an anti-Brahmin and anti-Hindu movement in Cachar district, Assam. He established a group called Apokpa Marup (association in the name of Meitei ancestor deity). Afterwards in 1945, it transgressed over to Manipur valley in the form of a movement called Sanamahi (named after the house deity). The Central organisation is called Meitei Phurup, having a network of branches (Marup).

An interesting data of 501 Meitei Umang Lai nomenclatures have been provided by the Census, 1991 publication, of which 264 are Gods; the balance of 237 being Goddesses.

These deities may be broadly categorised as:

1. Ancestor/Ancestress worship deities like Pakhangba;
2. Nature-related deities like Koubru;
3. Exotic deities like Sankardeva and Ramji Ningthou; and
4. Imaginary deities like Hijagang lai, Tilleng-kangleng lai.

The clear inference is that inhabitants of each of the 479 Manipur valley habitats would then be adoring at least one sylvan deity in every census-covered village, reflecting the inhered religious temperament and habits of the polity.

The ascent of Hindu religion peaked during the reign of king Bhagyachandra (1758-1798), when the Hindu Vaishnavite faith was declared as the State religion, with Shri Govindaji himself as the God-king, and Bhagyachandra only ruling the country in the name of the Divine king.

The do's and don'ts of a Vaishnava Manipuri was clearly laid down and a system of 'mangba-sengba' pronounced warning rigid enforcement as penalty in case of default or noncompliance. An altogether new cultural ramification came up through the creative talent of king Bhagyachandra himself.

The religion continued its sway under the patronage of a succession of Meitei kings right upto king Bodhachandra, although since 1930's the Sanamahi revivalism movement gained much ground.

But Sanamahi has since gained a distinct and coeval status, as evidenced by the enactment of The Lainingthou Sanamahi Temple Board Act, 1976 (Manipur Act No 2 of 1976) and the framing of relevant rules, enjoining under S. 7. Subsec. (1) (A):

(i) The Board shall not appoint a person as an officer or servant, other than the Executive Officer, thereof unless:-
(a) he possesses the Sanamahi religion and accepts the form of worship practised at the temple...."

- (Manipur Gazette Extraordinary No. 213 Feb. 24, 1977).

The last six decades (1947-2007) have seen sort of a serial 'blame game'-stimulating historical imagination-involving ethnic groups of both hills and valley across, as also between ethnic groups. So much so, the conventional historians are emboldened to scan history as to why so much Manipuri blood was shed in the 18th and 19 th centuries?

Till then they were prepared to shed blood for a cause, although they all seem to fall back on each other? The then battles would now seem more like ritualistic for the cause of Manipur, may be Greater Manipur.

Ingredients were bonded together to a core, including the upfront and differential views, holding them together against cross-currents, whirlwinds, tsunamis.

---

* H Dwijasekhar Sharma wrote this article for The Sangai Express . This article was webcasted on November 05, 2008.

---